Levenger compact agenda panic

I haven't been here for ages, but it was the people on this site who helped me find the perfect planner/notebook/address book, which I had been searching for for years. It turned out to be in the form of a Levenger compact navy leather notebook containing an agenda, blank pages, and my address book, all divided into sections by those adorable compact-sized dividers. This notebook has made me SO happy in the relatively short time I've had it.

And now I learn -- it can hardly be! -- that Levenger has discontinued their compact products? Please, tell me it isn't so! I invested in the stuff with the assumption that levenger would be around for a while so I could buy replacements indefinitely. This news is crushing.

But on the good side all the compact refills etc are on sale. Perhaps you could grab as many refills as possible before they disappear, and keep your beloved planner/notebook/address book alive for years to come. Although you may have to DIY the planner pages for future years.

Long term availability is one of the reasons I haven't invested in the Levenger stationery or any major commercial stationery.
That, and I'm a cheap skate :D

So many commerically produced things seem to only last a few years now before they just disappear, and I've lost trust that any particlar size of commerically produced planner around today will be around in 2 years time. Except perhaps the industry icons like Filofax.

I know Daytimer® ;-) is not cheap, but it is a very thorough system. It's available in a size similar to the Levenger Compact, and it is available in both loose-leaf and spiral-bound versions. It's less customizable in comparison to Rolla/Circa rings, but it might meet your needs if you don't have a punch, and don't want to invest in a punch.

On the other hand, if you do, then ygor's suggestion of the dynamic templates may fit the bill. ;-)

I'm not a good example of someone who uses a commercial system because I don't. Mainly because in the '80's I was the gal with a $500 gigantic filofax and a $2,000 a year planning-stuff addiction.

After realising I was spending a lot of money and way too much time on that I moved well away from it.

I'm now very minimalist with the tools I use - what takes time is the thought behind what I write down in my tools.

My planning tools changed again, slightly, recently.

Work's unchanged - I use Outlook at work (a corporate 'must do' where I work) and a cheap day-to-a-page spiral bound diary for managing my tasks/projects.

For personal use - I've moved from a fobster and a business card sized diary to a thin 5" x 7" diary (month to a page, calendar style) and a 50 page notebook the same size. The move was because I was finding the fobster too limited for reference info hence the notebook, and I wanted to see my commitments for the month at a glance and the little diary was a bit too little for that.

Anyway, the notebook holds my lists, contacts, etc. Some of these are on DIY templates and stuck in the book. The only thing that appears in both calendars are personal appointments in work time.

But first to answer your question (sorry for the delay). Seems you did miss something . . . it's not a question of renaming. Levenger is phasing out the Compact products.

BUT -- they brought back the compact weekly agenda refills for 2010! Evidently I'm not the only one heartbroken by the demise of the compact agenda. Levenger apparently responded to demand for the 2010, so I'm hoping with enough pleading (weeping, picketing, uproar . . . whatever works), they will keep offering the compact agenda refills. Note it's refills only, not the actual agenda with covers, but for those of us already committed to the compact size, that's all we need.

So please, if you care, or care about someone who does, or just want to make the world a better place, voice your desire to see the compact agenda kept in the inventory.

Levenger seems to have a real problem with small size notebooks. This is the second small size that they canceled after it became an important part of my tool set.

I did collect a bunch of refills, but I know they will not last forever.

I remember fondly the years when a remarkable mail order company (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of a major brick-and-mortar retailer) used to send me a notice when they were about to discontinue a size or color I'd bought before, in case I wanted to stock up.

Unfortunately you can't stock up on agendas, since they're only made once a year. I don't care so much about the blank pages, because those are easy enough to make. I realize the point of this whole website is DIY planners, but Levenger's are pretty perfect for me, so I really like the convenience.

Btw, if you're collecting refills for the compact size, they have the colored blank pages on sale, 300 for under $10. Why they don't have the white pages on sale, I don't know (at least they didn't a couple of weeks ago).

with The Dynamic Templates
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)

That's basically what I would do. I recently picked up both a junior and letter notebook from Levenger (with a nice zip folio for the junior, gotta love clearance prices), and the first thing I did with them was order a circa punch and start designing my own templates.

I've pretty much stopped using what came with them and just use my own now. 28# laser printer paper works really well, especially if printed on a laser printer (ink-jet ink tends to smear under highlighters and erasers). Just add a desk top paper cutter and you're good to go.

You can pick up a punch relatively inexpensively from Levenger's eBay outlet store. Search for the seller "levenger_outlet".

After purchasing several Circa items including a punch and rings a few years ago, I find I am pretty self-sufficient with DIY-ing templates or downloading forms. I create my own odd-sized notebooks or use standard sizes when I'm just too lazy to cut.

In fact, it's a bit depressing when I troll the Levenger site looking at the great deals and end up saying to myself, "No need to buy. I can make that myself."

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